Anniversaries 7 December

Birth

Abu Sa'id Abu'l-Khayr11

poet 967–1049

William Francis Patrick Napier1

Irish soldier in the British Army and military historian 1785–1860

Leopold Kronecker2

German mathematician who worked on number theory and algebr… 1823–1891

Johan Huizinga5

Dutch historian 1872–1945

Willa Cather99

American writer and novelist 1873–1947

Zechariah Chafee2

American judicial philosopher and civil libertarian 1885–1957

Heywood Broun5

American sportswriter 1888–1939

Joyce Cary3

Irish writer 1888–1957

Gabriel Marcel10

French philosopher, playwright, music critic and leading Ch… 1889–1973

Stuart Davis2

American painter 1892–1964

Wanda Toscanini2

Italian musician 1907–1998

Leigh Brackett21

American novelist and screenwriter 1915–1978

Victor Kiam2

American businessman, American football executive 1926–2001

Henepola Gunaratana2

Sri Lankan Buddhist monk 1927

Noam Chomsky334

american linguist, philosopher and activist 1928

Pentti Linkola17

Finnish ecologist 1932

Don W. Wilson1

Archivist of the United States 1942

Harry Chapin90

American musician 1942–1981

Pearl Cleage9

American novelist 1948

David Lyon5

British sociologist 1948

Nguyễn Duy2

1948

Mark Kurlansky5

American journalist 1948

James Rivière3

Italian Jewellery and sculptor 1949

Tom Waits79

American singer-songwriter and actor 1949

Radhanath Swami11

Gaudiya Vaishnava guru 1950

L. K. Samuels76

American writer 1951

Susan Collins1

United States Senator from Maine 1952

Joshua David Stone1

American writer 1953–2005

Susan Minot4

American author and screenwriter 1956

Larry Bird21

basketball player and coach 1956

Anna Soubry3

British politician 1956

John Lee Ka-chiu3

Chief Executive-elect of Hong Kong 1957

Terri Blackstock3

American writer 1957

Barbara Wilshere1

British actor 1959

Tom Frieden1

American physician, President and Chief Executive Officer a… 1960

Imad Mughniyah2

Lebanese militant, head of security for Hezbollah 1962–2008

Alexia Manombe-Ncube1

Namibian politician 1964

Michael Punke1

American jurist and lawyer 1964

J. R. Moehringer2

American journalist 1964

Adrianus Sunarko1

Indonesian Roman Catholic bishop 1966

Nina Turner1

American politician 1967

Sawao Yamanaka2

Japanese singer-songwriter 1968

Patrice O'Neal6

American stand-up comedian, radio personality, and actor 1969–2011

Larisa Alexandrovna11

Ukrainian-American journalist, essayist, poet 1971

Ali Raymi6

Boxing Knockout Artist 1973–2015

Terrell Owens9

former American football wide receiver 1973

Georges Laraque1

Canadian ice hockey player 1976

Sara Bareilles24

American pop rock singer-songwriter and pianist 1979

John Terry3

English association football player 1980

Yuzuru Hanyu32

Japanese figure skater (1994-) 1994

Death

Marcus Tullius Cicero180

Roman philosopher and statesman -106–-43 BC

Gabriel Biel4

German canon regular and scholar 1418–1495

Algernon Sidney16

British politician and political theorist 1623–1683

John Tobin2

playwright 1770–1804

David Jewett Waller, Sr.3

Pennsylvanian minister and civic leader 1815–1893

Chilton A. White1

American politician 1826–1900

Julius Bahnsen4

German philosopher 1830–1881

Thomas Brackett Reed1

U.S. Representative from Maine, and Speaker of the House 1839–1902

James Whitbread Lee Glaisher6

English mathematician and astronomer 1848–1928

Nicholas Murray Butler17

American philosopher, diplomat, and educator 1862–1947

Laurette Taylor4

American stage and silent film actress 1884–1946

Robert Graves117

English poet and novelist 1895–1985

Thornton Wilder61

American playwright and novelist 1897–1975

Joan Bennett2

American actress 1910–1990

Potter Stewart7

American judge 1915–1985

Jeane Kirkpatrick11

American diplomat and Presidential advisor 1926–2006

Frank Oski7

American pediatrician 1932–1996

Ameer Muhammad Akram Awan7

Pakistani Sufi leader 1934–2017

Reinaldo Arenas5

Cuban poet/novelist/playwright 1943–1990